Amarax Station
Research Station Amarax was the Magellan Corporation's deep-space long range parallax array platform. It was commissioned in 2173 and was situated outside the apogee of Pluto scanning deep space for singularities for possible commercial use. It was purchased and refurbished by Dr. Kenneth Farnstein in 2221 serving as his studio and laboratory, known as Farnstein Lab. He made it self-sufficient and attached hollowed-out asteroids as new modules. He repositioned it near Saturn until destroyed by an asteroid shower. The station had an advanced neurocomputer based on a new form of biotechnology whose resident Softweb housed Arthur. Several modules of the station, such as the research lab and much of the habitat wing, were sheared from the main frame by the space debris. :Agent 5 visited the Station soon after its destruction to investigate the traces of any artificial intelligence. While there he downloaded Arthur in his JumpSuit therefore saving him from oblivion. In the later years the capacitance array was drained and the neurocomputer was dissolved. In February 2282 the space sweeper Lazy Jane patrolled low Saturn orbit while looking for ice mining platform, recognised Amarax by its beacon. The crew discovered the remnants of the neurocomputer core, and four globes of a similar biomass made of polymorphing neural matter, which they superstitiously considered the memories and ghosts of the dead crewmembers. The computer core was brought to Earth for study, which was understood only years later by the foremost technologists. Its architecture lead to the development of the ubiquitous Biochip technology. The self/here*LIFE sculptures which, when interacted with, they blossomed into multi-dimensional art pieces, astounded the art world and were recognised as masterpieces. Structure The body of the Amarax is two long parallel hulls, the Habitat Wing and the Science Wing. Both end up to the Atmosphere Mining to one end, and to the Docking Bay to the other end. The walls of the connection hallways are lightweight corromite fiberbags, honeycombing little cells. The ship upfolded and pressurized with an expanding close cell foam making it self-sealing in case of micrometeor punctures. The modules were designed to sheer off at the connection tube rather than being breached by a collision so that to keep their occupants alive awaiting for rescue. The Habitat Wing is apartised by 3 modules which in turn have hatches to automated Hydroponics, Crew Berths and Mess/Rec Module with kitchen and gravity gym, and end up to the globular Capacitance Array. This contains atmospheric controls and leads to the Engineering and to the Docking Bay. The Science Wing had the modules Biomass Processing, Med Lab, Neuronics Lab and the Scanner Room. Farnstein set up an art studio in the Research Lab which he interfaced with Arthur so that he could experiment. During the disaster Farnstein was in the lab when the asteroids hit the Station and the section of the corridor collapsed. The Biomass Processing has programming stations and a womb in the center where Farnstein grew the neurosynaptic polymer gel. The programming stations are where the gel is programmed. Each new function is mapped independently into a glob of gel by stimulating synaptic pathways with the resonance probes. Each mass is introdued to the parent nexus where it is assimilated to become part of the webware. Harmonic resonances introduce specific 3d resonance waves into the biomass. Where they converge, the gel is stimulated into opening new patterns of pathways. It is where Arthur was created and where he created his artworks. Programming Station C housed the Self Consciousness. The module was depressurized after the disaster and Michelle Visard had to replenish oxygen before entering. After interacting with the artworks, Visard tampered with the artifact using a specific resonance frequency with a harmonic resonance generator. The Scanning Room is a globular module (mirroring the Capacitance Array) with sensors and scanners and is "occupied" by Arthur. It had to hatches, leading to the Science Wing and the AI Nexus. When Amarax was destroyed the Nexus was detached from the Scanning Room. Gage Blackwood met Arthur there, and then had to input a manual override (32770) to exit to space and hurl himself to the Nexus. The Docking bay at the one end leads to the Habitat Wing (Capacitance Array) and the Command Center. At the other end it leads to the Docking Control and the Science Wing (Scanning Room). It has the shape of hive-like hex pads with localized gravity repulsors allowing movement of cargo around the hold. It is occupied by crates bearing the DICOM logo. Hatches were secured with pressure locks. Each hatch had the following warning: "CAUTION! Remove charge before attempting pressure lock override unsealing." They are equiped with a foam ejecting mechanism that seals the modules in case of decompession. When Gage downloaded arthur, the override blew open the door and deployed the sealing foam; at the atmosphere Mining airlock, Arthur overrode its door as well, but removed the charge to open the door safely. Atmospheric mining The Atmospheric Mining contained a hollow asteroid mainly composed by water ice, a minig rig and a cable cart and two maintenance elevators to the Habitat and the Science Wings. Remotes called "nibblers" crawl along the inside wall and an arc of a heated molecular filament rotates back and forth carving out the asteroid. The vibrations shatter the ice which then is drawin into the proessor by the gravitational pull of the mass driver rings. These create a shallow gravitational field which acts like a conveyor belt (a lot of ice gets caught inside the inversion coils and melts so there is a water trap built in). Raw ice is melted in a junction and then pumped into to the atmosphere processing plant in the station proper. There it is divided into oxygen for breathable air, and hydrogen for the attitude jets and backup generator The process was automated, and it was visited only for maintenance. There is a pPlugin control used to test the mining program and runs a simple mining cycle on one of the remotes. There is also a station with a water purge valve and oxygen reserve connection in case a maintenance job takes too long. As the passageways were destroyed, to reach the Biomass room, Gage passed through the hollowed asteroid (which was in total vacuum) with the atmospheric mining lift and then the maintainance platform to get to the other end of the asteroid. He acivated the test cycle to get enough raw material, and molecular separation cycles to get oxygen out of the ice and pressurize the Biomass room. Atmospheric control interfaces in various parts of the station pressurized components of the station. Sections *Scanner room *docking bay *AI nexus *atmosphere mining *bionic process *habitat wing *engineering *command center *docking control *science wing *science control *capacitance array Category:BiT Category:Spacecraft